Periodical Literature. 97 



the organism fruits abundantly in certain places where the stand 

 is sound and that fruit-bodies which were abundant before the 

 fire in certain places were lacking after the fire. For these 

 reasons he thinks it an error to attribute an influence of any kind 

 to fires. The disease exerts its ravages before it is recognized, 

 the fires being a result of cutting the first trees attacked. The 

 fruits, which are often abundant on burned spots, are thought 

 to be favored by the presence of the nutritive elements in wood 

 ashes. 



The author is also skeptical as to the cause of the disease and 

 thinks the invasion of Rhisina only secondary, the primary cause 

 being yet unknown. 



Contribution a I'Etude de la Maladie des Ronds. Compt. Rend. Acad. 

 Sci. 154, June 3, 1912. Pp. 1525- 1528. 



A very interesting paper from Dr. Meinicke 



Mistletoe on the Calif ornian mistletoe, Phoradendron 



on juniperinum liboccdri Engelm throws much 



Incense light on the biology of this parasite. It is 



Cedar. a small hanging shrub which frequently 



nests high up in the crowns of the incense 



cedar, and is responsible for the barrel-shaped swellings on the 



trunks of old trees. 



Several such burls, ranging up to 350 years of age and 45 

 inches in diameter, were sectioned. The dead mistletoe sinkers 

 in the hartwood and living ones in the sap were very conspicuous, 

 extending from the surface nearly to the center, and being more 

 or less arranged in concentric rings. In one tree an average 

 living sinker measured ^ inch long and extended through 19 

 annual rings. In another tree the first 37 years, counting from 

 the center, were free of sinkers and the remaining 219 years 

 showed persistent infection. 



These observations establish the fact that the parasite often 

 reaches a great age, and it is of particular interest to note that 

 when it reaches this high age it lives without green exterior 

 organs. This phenomenon opens up the entire subject of the 

 degree of parasitism which it enjoys and, hence, the question of 

 physiological relation to its host. It normally starts as a hemi- 

 parasite, functioning, in part, as any chlorophyll-bearing plant. 

 The enormous development of bark finally eliminates both the 



